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terminalCommands.md

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TERMINAL INFO

You may know some of this already. It is a quick summary of the basics that can be helpful to you.

  • the terminal is often called shell
  • it is an application that you can use, just like any application (browser, calculator, Word)
  • a terminal can be bash or zsh or others: these are terminal types but they do the same thing
  • you cannot use the mouse in the terminal: only the arrow keys left and right
  • you can run the same command again in your terminal by using the arrow UP or arrow DOWN keys

Useful commands:

Command Explanation
pwd print working directory: this will give you the folder you are working in
~ go to the home folder/directory (~ stands for 'home')
cd change folder/directory: this will also go to the home directory
cd .. change folder/directory one level up
cd NAME go to folder/directory NAME (the file name with extension, such as .js, .txt, .html, etc.)
ls this will show a list of files in the folder/directory that you are in (we also call that 'current directory')
clear clears everything in the terminal
mkdir NAME makes a new directory/folder with the name of NAME
touch NAME make a new file with the name of NAME
cp NAME copy the file with the name NAME
cp NAME FOLDER copy the file called NAME into the folder called FOLDER
rm FILENAME remove (delete) the file FILENAME
mv CURRENT-LOCATION/FILENAME NEW-LOCATION /FILENAME move a file from one directory to another. The filename stays the same, but you specify another directory
mv FILENAME NEW-FILENAME rename the file FILENAME to NEW-FILENAME
cat FILENAME view contents of the file

Important: Ctrl C will terminate most of the commands that are running but sometimes you need to use q (for 'quit') to get out of a screen (for example, after you have used git diff in the terminal)

Important: Commands that start with 'sudo' have to do with administrator privileges, so don't use them unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing (sudo = SuperUserDo, and superuser is the administrator).